UbKARY 

OP  THE 

UNIVERSITY  of  ILUHOIS. 


.American  Telegraph 

Compared  with  the 

British  Government 
Teleg  ra  ph 


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learning  anb  l^abar. 

LIBRARY 


University  of  Illinois. 

CLASS.  BOOK. 

CQU>a 


VOLUME. 


^IjUdrvy 

A Accession  No. 


American  Telegraph 

Compared  with  the 

British  Government  Telegraph 


Ipress  of 

(Seo.  i£.  /IDarsball  & Co. 
144=146  /Ifeonroe  Street,  Chicago 


37  Ap  ’02 


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The  following  information  is  from  an  interview 
had  with  Gol.  R.  C.  Clowry,  Vice-President  and 
General  Superintendent  of  the  Western  Union  Tele- 
graph Company,  and  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Electricity  of  the  World’s  Fair,  by  a representative 
of  the  Chicago  Inter  Ocean,  as  published  by  that 
paper  in  its  issue  of  December  2,  1893  : 

“ Col.  Clowry,  did  you  read  the  telegraphic  dis- 
patches recently  published  in  which  Mr.  Preece,  the 
Chief  Engineer  of  the  British  Telegraphs,  is  quoted 
as  saying  that  there  was  only  one  branch  of  electrical 
industry  in  which  the  English  compared  favorably 
with  their  American  cousins,  that  being  telegraphy, 
in  which  they  were  certainly  ahead?” 

“Yes,  I read  the  article  you  mention.” 

“ I suppose  you  also  read  the  interview  with  Mr. 
Preece,  published  in  the  New  York  Sun  last  August.” 

“Yes,  I read  that  also.” 

“What  is  there  to  be  said  in  reply  to  those  state- 
ments of  Mr.  Preece?” 

“Well,  a good  deal  can  be  said  in  reference  to 
the  matter.  In  the  interview  with  Mr.  Preece,  as 
reported  in  the  Sun,  he  states  that  the  ‘telegraph 
‘ facilities  in  England  are  greater  than  they  are  here, 
‘ for  we  go  to  every  town  and  every  village,  irre- 
‘ spective  of  the  fact  that  they  pay  or  do  not  pay, 
‘ while  in  the  States  the  places  that  pay  appear  to  me 
‘ to  be  the  only  ones  that  receive  the  attention  of  the 
‘telegraph  companies.’  In  reply  to  that  statement  I 
quote  from  the  annual  report  of  the  British  Post- 


master  General,  who  says : 4 The  department  has 
4 ceased  to  require  the  repayment  of  the  capital  out- 
* lay  for  telegraph  extensions  made  under  guarantee, 
1 and  the  guarantee  is  now  required  to  cover  only  the 
4 expense  of  working  and  maintenance.  By  act  of 
4 Parliament  the  rural  sanitary  authorities  are  em- 
4 powered  to  undertake  guarantees  for  telegraph 
4 offices  at  places  within  their  districts  and  to  defray 
4 the  cost  out  of  the  rates.  As  the  result  of  this  con- 
4 cession  there  has  been  a considerable  extension  of 
4 the  telegraph  system  in  the  rural  districts/  It  will 
be  seen  by  this  that  the  telegraph  system  of  Great 
Britain  is  not  extended  to  small  towns  except  under 
a guaranty  to  cover  the  working  and \maintenance. 
The  statement  of  the  Postmaster  General  is,  there- 
fore, a direct  contradiction  of  that  of  Mr.  Preece.” 

44  Under  the  Western  Union  system,  the  telegraph 
extends  to  every  railway  station,  great  and  small,  in 
the  United  States,  without  expense  to  the  public,  and 
we  are  only  too  glad  to  extend  our  lines  to  other 
towns  not  connected  with  railroads,  where,  as  in 
Great  Britain,  the  expense  of  working  and  main- 
tenance is  guaranteed.  Notwithstanding  the  state- 
ment of  Mr.  Preece  that  the  telegraph  in  England 
extends  to  every  town  and  village,  it  is  a fact  that 
there  are  telegraph  offices  established  at  less  than 
one-third  of  the  post-offices. 

44 1 notice,  also,  that  when  asked  by  the  Sun  re- 
porter if  he  considered  government  telegraphs  a 
success  in  England,  Mr.  Preece  said,  ‘Yes  they  are 


'undoubtedly  a success  in  England.’  On  the  other 
hand,  the  British  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  in 
laying  before  the  House  of  Commons  last  April  the 
annual  budget,  said  in  his  speech  thereupon,  ‘ that 
‘ the  operations  of  the  British  government  telegraphs 
‘for  the  fiscal  year  showed  a “ bad  revenue,”  and  an 
‘ excess  of  actual  working  expenses  over  receipts  of 
‘ ,£l  1 5>000  ($560,000)  to  say  nothing  of  the  interest  on 
‘the  ,£10,000,000  ($50,000,000)  of  bonds  issued  for 
‘their  acquisition.  He  also  said  that  since  the 
‘ purchase  of  the  telegraph  lines  by  the  government, 
‘the  loss  on  that  transaction,  including  the  moderate 
‘ interest  the  lines  ought  to  have  paid  upon  their  cost, 

‘ had  been  ,£4,500,000  (about  $22,000,000)  which  result 
‘ was  founded  upon  a miscalculation,  and,  for  anything 
1 that  can  be  seen  to  the  contrary  it  is  a revenue  which 
‘ is  going  from  bad  to  worse  and  not  likely  to  improve.’ 
“According  to  these  figures  the  British  government 
has  operated  the  telegraph  system  for  about  twenty- 
two  years  at  a loss  of  about  $1,000,000  a year.  The 
telegraph  is  used  mostly  by  bankers,  merchants, 
manufacturers,  brokers  and  speculators,  so  that, 
according  to  the  English  plan,  a large  majority  of 
the  people  who  never  use  the  telegraph  have  to 
make  up  the  yearly  deficit  of  $1,000,000  in  order  to 
afford  the  parties  first  named  low  rates  on  their 
messages.  But,  while  for  short  distances  the  word 
rates  in  England  are  lower  than  they  are  here,  still, 
owing  to  the  different  methods  in  vogue  in  the  two 
countries  for  counting  the  number  of  words  in  a 


message  (in  Great  Britain  the  words  in  the  address 
and  signature  are  counted,  while  we  do  not  count 
them),  the  cost  to  the  sender  on  an  average  message 
is  about  the  same.  The  long  distance  rates  on  the 
continent,  and  between  England  and  the  continent 
are  much  higher  than  those  for  similar  distances  in 
the  United  States.” 

“ Regarding  the  statement  in  the  Sun  article  that 
‘Mr.  Preece’s  department  is  the  Western  Union  and 
‘American  Bell  Telephone  Companies  rolled  up  into 
‘ one,  and  half  a dozen  sub-marine  cable  companies 
‘thrown  in/  etc.,  1 will  merely  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  British  telegraph  system  comprises  but 
about  30,000  miles  of  line,  190,000  miles  of  wire,  and 

8.000  offices,  extending  over  an  area  of  about  120,000 
square  miles  ; while  the  Western  Union  Telegraph 
system  alone  comprises  about  190,000  miles  of  line, 

750.000  miles  of  wire,  8,500  miles  of  ocean  sub- 
marine cables,  and  22,000  offices,  extending  through- 
out an  area  of  more  than  3,000,000  square  miles, 
being,  therefore,  about  four  times  as  great  as  the 
British  government  telegraph  system,  and  extending 
over  an  area  twenty-four  times  as  large.  The  capital 
account  of  the  cost  to  the  British  government  of 
its  telegraph  system  is  $50,000,000.  If  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company’s  capital  account  was  in 
proportion  to  its  property  in  the  same  ratio  it  would 
be  over  $200,000,000.” 

“ Mr.  Preece  in  his  interview  says  that : ‘In  Eng- 
‘ land  the  telegraphs  belong  to  the  people  ; for  every 


‘ Englishman  has  the  right  to  complain  of  any  delay 
‘ or  anything  wrong,  not  only  through  the  press,  but 
‘ in  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  and  every  complaint  of 
‘ every  kind  received  from  any  member  of  the  public 
‘ receives  as  much  attention  as  though  it  came 
‘through  the  Houses  of  Parliament.’” 

“ Now,  an  examination  into  the  conditions  undei^ 
which  the  telegraphic  business  is  transacted  in  the 
two  countries  will  show  that  in  the  United  States 
there  is  sharp  competition,  two  competing  companies 
having  always  been  in  the  field  — sometimes  more; 
and  that  our  business  men  fully  appreciate  the  value 
of  competition  as  an  incentive  to  prompt  and  effcient 
service,  knowing  that  if  one  company  does  not  give  , 
satisfaction  they  can  transfer  their  patronage  to  J 
another.  Again,  as  the  telegraph  system  in  America 
is  essentially  under  the  control  of  the  people  (being 
amenable  under  the  law  to  every  inhabitant  of  the 
country),  should  errors  or  unnecessary  delays  occur 
in  the  transmission  of  messages  the  public  has  redress 
through  the  courts,  and  can,  and  does  recover  dam- 
ages, and  it  is  a crime  under  the  law  for  employes  of 

% 1 

telegraph  companies  to  divulge  or  make  improper 
use  of  the  contents  of  messages.” 

“On  the  other  hand,  where  the  government  has  a 
monopoly  of  the  telegraph  business,  as  is  the  case  in 
England  and  on  the  continent,  there  is  no  compe-l 
tition  and  no  redress  whatever  for  delay  or  error  in/ 
the  transmission  of  messages  over  and  above  the 
refunding  of  the  actual  tolls  paid  upon  the  message, 


which  may  possibly  be  secured  after  a correspond- 
ence more  or  less  prolonged,  and  the  governments, 
having  direct  control  of  the  telegraphs,  exercise  over 
the  contents  of  all  messages  transmitted  an  espion- 
age which  would  not  be  tolerated  by  the  people  of 
the  United  States.  Now,  I wish  to  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  employes  of  the  competing  tele- 
graph companies  of  the  United  States  are,  in  the 
main,  persons  who  have  been  in  the  business  all 
their  lives,  the  tenure  of  their  positions  depending 
upon  their  efficiency.  But,  if  the  telegraph  business 
were  controlled  by  the  government,  political  loyalty 
to  the  party  in  power  would  be  more  apt  to  be 
regarded  as  the  gauge  of  qualification  than  ability  to 
perform  the  duties  of  the  position.” 

“Fourteen  years  ago  Mr.  Preece  first  visited  this 
country,  and  at  that  time  I understood  him  to  say 
that  there  was  not  an  operator  in  Europe  who  read 
by  sound,  although  the  sound-reading  system  had 
been  in  vogue  in  this  country  for  upward  of  thirty 
years.  On  his  return  to  England  he  stated  in  a paper 
read  before  a society  of  which  he  was  a member  that 
England  was  twenty  years  behind  the  United  States 
in  its  telegraphic  development,  and  for  this  he  was 
severely  criticised  by  some  of  the  English  papers. 
About  eight  years  later  Mr.  Preece  again  visited 
this  country  and  stated  that  they  were  making  con- 
siderable progress  in  the  direction  of  introducing 
the  American,  or  Morse  sound-reading  system. 
He  again  visited  the  United  States  this  year  and 


informed  me  that  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish an  English  from  a Western  Union  tele- 
graph office,  they  were  so  much  alike,  and  that  the 
American,  Morse,  or  sound-reading  system  was  in 
general  use  in  England.  It  appears,  therefore,  that 
Mr.  Preece  has  introduced  the  American  system  in 
his  own  country,  and  in  this  he  has  shown  great 
wisdom,  as  it  is,  and  always  has  been,  very  much 
superior  to  the  European  system.  If  it  had  not  been 
for  Mr.  Preece’s  visits  to  the  United  States,  and  his 
ability  to  adopt  our  system  and  improvements,  I am 
afraid  that  the  English  would  still  be  dragging  along 
with  the  old-fashioned  dial  needle  instruments,  as 
they  are  singulary  averse  to  what  they  call  ‘American 
ovations.’ ” 


/\ “ During  the  past  summer  I have  met  and  con- 
versed with  representative  electricians  from  nearly 
all  parts  of  the  world,  who  came  here  to  visit  the 
exposition.  Each  of  them  has  inspected  the  West- 
ern Union  office  and  system  in  Chicago,  and  in  every 
case  has  stated  distinctly  that  the  progress  of  tele- 
graphy in  the  United  States  was  very  far  in  advance 
of  what  it  was  in  Europey  Our  instruments,  switch- 
boards, etc.,  appear  to  be  a revelation  to  most  of 
them.  Then  again,  the  United  States  is  the  only 
country  in  which  telegraph  lines  are  operated  direct 
from  dynamo  current.  In  Europe  they  still  adhere 
to  the  old  battery  system  (in  some  cases  using 
storage  batteries),  and  the  gentlemen  who  visited 
me  were  surprised  to  see  the  great  advance  we  have 


made  in  this  direction.  The  only  European  instru- 
ments which  we  have  adopted  in  this  country  are  the 
English  Wheatstone,  which  we  work  to  advantage 
on  some  of  our  long  circuits  ; while  in  England  they 
are  gradually  substituting  our  Morse  system,  includ- 
ing the  duplex,  quadruplex,  etc.,  for  their  old 
machinery.  In  fact,  an  electric  manufacturing 
company  of  Chicago  is  shipping  telegraphic  instru- 
ments to  nearly  all  parts  of  Europe.  It  appears  to 
me,  therefore,  that  the  United  States  are  very  much 
in  advance  of  all  European  countries  in  all  branches 
of  electrical  industries,  the  telegraph  and  telephone 
included,  and,  in  fact,  in  all  mechanical  industries, 
very  nearly  all  of  the  great  inventions  having  been 
made  by  Americans. ” 

“ Have  you  anything  to  say  in  reference  to  the 
^lectrical  exhibit  at  the  World’s  Fair?” 

“The  electrical  exhibit  was  a very  fine  one;  but 
no  satisfactory  exhibit  of  electrical  industries  in  the 
United  States  could  be  given  within  the  confines  of 
any  single  building.  To  appreciate  the  extent  of 
such  industries  one  should  travel  all  over  the  country 
and  see  the  thousands  of  cities  and  towns  which  are 
lighted  by  electricity  and  furnished  with  trans- 
portation for  the  people  by  means  of  electric  street 
railways,  running  at  a rate  of  speed  varying  from  five 
to  twenty-five  miles  an  hour.  This  list  which  I hand 
you  will  give  you  some  figures  from  which  you  can 
form  an  idea  of  the  extent  of  exhibits  from  the 
different  countries,  as  they  appeared  in  the  Electricity 
Building  at  the  World’s  Fair.” 


The  list  shows  the  following  figures  : 


Square  feet. 

United  States  occupied 141,397 

Germany  occupied 24,172 

France  occupied 20,338 

Great  Britain  occupied 5,031 

Japan  occupied 1,103 

Austria  occupied 1,000 

Italy  occupied  1,000 

Other  countries,  less  than  (each) 1,000 


In  connection  with  the  facts  and  figures  set  forth 
in  the  foregoing  interview,  the  following  additional 
statement  may  be  of  interest : 

The  deficit  (including  interest  on  purchase  money) 
in  the  British  telegraph  system  has  been  as  follows 
for  the  periods  mentioned  : 

For  the  fiscal  year  ending  : 

March  31,  1893 ,£465,570  (over  $2,250,000)  t 

March  31,  1894 £477,327  (over  $2,310,000)  / 

March  31,  1895 £452,803  (over  $2,191,000) 

Or  an  average  of  £‘465,233  (over  $2, 251, 000)  for 
each  of  the  three  years  named. 


) 


~ ■«£-  ■ ■ 

"V  -•  • 


